Books & Authors Quiz: Famous Books Adapted into Films

R. K. Narayan's novel The Guide, published in 1958 and set in his imagined town of Malgudi, won him the Sahitya Akademi Award and was filmed as Guide in 1965 with Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman.

His novel Pather Panchali gave Satyajit Ray the material for his first film, released in 1955, and for Aparajito, the two with Apur Sansar forming the Apu Trilogy.

Premchand's Hindi short story Shatranj Ke Khilari, about two noblemen of Awadh absorbed in chess while their kingdom is annexed, was filmed by Satyajit Ray in 1977, the director's only Hindi feature; Ray also made Sadgati from another Premchand story.

Q & A was written by Vikas Swarup, a diplomat, and was adapted by Danny Boyle as Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture; A. R. Rahman won the awards for Best Original Score and, with Gulzar, for Best Original Song, and Resul Pookutty won for sound…

Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT, published in 2004, was Chetan Bhagat's first novel and supplied the story of three engineering students that became 3 Idiots, directed by Rajkumar Hirani in 2009.

Omkara, released in 2006 and set in the politics of western Uttar Pradesh, follows the plot of Othello, with the handkerchief of the play becoming a waistband in the film.

Umrao Jaan Ada, published in 1899, is counted among the first novels in Urdu and tells the story of a courtesan of Lucknow; Muzaffar Ali filmed it in 1981 with Rekha in the title role.

Mario Puzo published The Godfather in 1969, and Francis Ford Coppola filmed it in 1972; Puzo also worked on the screenplay, for which he shared an Academy Award.

Nastanirh, meaning the broken nest, is Tagore's novella about a lonely wife in a Calcutta household, and Satyajit Ray filmed it in 1964 as Charulata, a film Ray himself named as the one he would change least.

Amrita Pritam's Punjabi novel Pinjar, meaning the skeleton, tells the story of Puro, a woman abducted on the eve of Partition, and was filmed in 2003 under the same name; Pritam also wrote the famous Partition poem addressed to Waris Shah and received the Jnanpith Award.